₦airaland Forum

semid4lyfe:
Baba, questions for you

1. You dey play ball?
2. You don pull hamstring before?

I have ...about 5 years ago during my normal saturday morning football sessions.

I was pressing blocked pure water to the thigh for like 5 minutes everyday and rubbing deep heat ointment.

Despite all these, it took me about 3 months before I could resume playing football again.

With the stakes and the physicality of the DR Congo players, there's no way Osimhen would have lasted the remaining 45 minutes.

Abeg, e good as coach commot am to save am for AFCON.

Me, I want us to meet DR Congo again at AFCON. I want to see what Eric Chelle will do, and how the team will play differently.

If osihmen missed Afcon it’s no big deal as Afcon is every two years and he can still play the next edition but the World Cup is every four years and there’s no guarantee Osihmen will be available then. Ghana won’t be in Afcon so what’s the big deal, the real deal is the World Cup. You gerit?

Life itself is hard so choose your hard!

mrwilliams9:
AFCON 25, 27, 29.

These players should just look to capture 2 of those 3 titles. For their own legacies.

abeg sheft. Everybody is angry and you are bringing this one. What is wrong with you

Mujtahida:
The match against DRC played out exactly the same way the final against CIV happened. In both matches, We scored first but the opposition wasn't fazed. They just shrugged it off and played their game. And equalized.

What struck me was how our players became timid and tame. You will see fear and panic in their eyes. It's strange.

name one player you want out of this team

nextlevel2222:
I entered Uber to work this morning. The Asian driver asked where I was from because of my accent. I said I’m from Nigeria; to my surprise, he said, "Footballing Nation country." As a lady, I acted as if I didn’t understand. I repeated, "Footballing Nation country." He said, "Yes, Footballing Nation country before; now they don’t even qualify for the World Cup." I just replied, "Yeah." That brings the sadness from yesterday's loss match back into my heart. These players did us strong things. They gave us high hope with their previous two matches with the way they played and shattered it just like that.

thank you my sister and sombody is bringing winning afcon in 25, 27 and 29

QueenJazz:
I'm even tired of talking of these players. If you ask me, it's high time we start focusing on the cankerworm eating deep into our football: The NFF (No Future Foundation).

What's paining me is that most Nigerian football fans are fickle and have short term memory. I won't be surprised if this issue is swept under the rug in the next 1-2 weeks. We need to hold NFF by the neck and not let go at all.

The Super Eagles fell yesterday, and it hurts to say this, but with Madugu in charge and with the rubbish we played in the last WAFCON. qualifiers, the Super Falcons might be next. 😩

If we boot out the current NFF board and replace them with a different set of people, it'd still be the same thing.

I've been following Nigerian football since '94, and I dare say the early to the late 90's was the only time we had a semblance of a proactive and functional NFF. I think Emeka Omeruah, and Abdulmuminu Aminu were the Chairmen then. That period also coincided with our world cup qualification, U-17 world cup, AFCON and Olympic football triumphs.

Since then, it's been a steady decline. and subsequent NFFs have been worse. Despite the shoddy NFF, we've had some football triumphs. AFCON in 2013, Back to Back U-17 world cups in 2013 and 2015, multiple WAFCONs etc.

My point is, all our football laurels have been in spite of the NFF. I applauded the NFF when Finidi was appointed, and also when he was sacked. The only thing I'll fault the NFF for in our failure is the bonuses issue that led to the boycott of training because FG released funds to the NFF to clear the bonus backlogs and also subsequent payments but the NFF used the money to settle other internal matters.

Every other thing, I'll put on the players 70% and 30% on the coach. I mean, look PK wey Bassey, Simon and Ajayi play. That onr na NFF too?

On Super Falcons, Madugu is. not a bad coach tactically. My issue with him is the shutting out of certain players and the home-based quota thing he seems to be implementing. He's also failed to realize that some players are past their best before dates and he's still giving them call ups. If he selects his squad without sentiments and bias, picks the best 11 to start the matches, we'd do well.

Goke7:
If osihmen missed Afcon it’s no big deal as Afcon is every two years and he can still play the next edition but the World Cup is every four years and there’s no guarantee Osihmen will be available then. Ghana won’t be in Afcon so what’s the big deal, the real deal is the World Cup. You gerit?

Life itself is hard so choose your hard!

Again, once he started feeling it, Osimhen wouldn't have lasted 10 more minutes in the second half before he'd be unable to continue.

Hamstring na be mai mai injury.

semid4lyfe:
Again, once he started feeling it, Osimhen wouldn't have lasted 10 more minutes in the second half before he'd be unable to continue.

Hamstring na be mai mai injury.

Fair point then! But remember in Afcon he’s not going to play 90 mins for you in every game.

Mujtahida:
Bro it's terrible. See some people complaining about Osimhen's availability. Omo, human beings especially Nigerians are fickle and ungrateful.

This guy gave it his all. Osasu Obayuwana said Osimhen has unquestionable commitment to the Super Eagles. All it took is just one loss and the man who was a hero has become a villain.

Palm Sunday. One week later - crucifixion.

Most are just emotional outbursts but if you look at it from an unbiased point clutch moment is were the extreme world class players always stand up example Messi against France at last world cup final 60-70% of our crucial matches osimehn isn’t always available I think he should work more on his fitness still our best super eagle player at the moment 💯

The Super Falcons are the ones turning up lately.
Tipping them to get to a word cup semifinal before the men do.

The SE midfield has never been the same since 2018 when Mikel's decline began. We have so many runners, tacklers etc but no genuine CAM/CDM that can control the tempo of a game. Until we get a genuine replacement, teams with superior midfields WILL ALWAYS expose the limitations of this team. I think it is high time Akinsanmiro and others are given a chance to prove themselves.

Goke7:
People get mind o to cry for the eagles 😂 someone even posted that two elderly people in his area had to be rushed to hospital around 11pm! I hail those who deployed so much emotions for the eagles. Me I had my dinner before the match, was in night gown and was on my bed after the game in fact it was on my bed I was posting on this thread last night!

My heart goes out to everyone one experiencing such heartbreaking moments. I hope the players see such videos and understand how their shitty play affects many Nigerians.

You be man or woman?
Night gown ke

Another bad market for elegbete of formerly BrilaFM

Last worldcup cost him thousands of dollars

Now this.

How can a whole country like Nigeria with football history be struggling to qualify to the world cup in 12 years?

Something is not right

Took me days to recover from this one. I'm still not happy.

I only watch national team football, now what am I going to watch for a whole year?

I have already come to the realization that as a country we are NGMI. The super eagles are not an exception to this. After every failed outing, the nff will always put out a statement saying the next outing will be better. Its never better. Our hopes were raised by beating benin, raised higher by beating gabon and dashed on Sunday. We should have known it was too good to be true based on the way we started the qualifiers. Be that as it may, we have not option than to move forward, Our next match is meant to be against egypt on dec 14 for an AFCON friendly. Lets look forward to the next outing and hope as always the other team is less useless than us and we get to change the thread title to AFCON champions for the first time by next year.

Procashtips:
You be man or woman?
Night gown ke

Me sef confuse 😂 na wetin eagles don cause

Goke7:
Me sef confuse 😂 na wetin eagles don cause

Wahala

Make I go arrange for basketball things.

Too bad only women qualified for basketball too and I no get the tolerance for women's sports.

Me I've stopped investing my emotions on this set of players, the world cup hurt unsurprisingly took me less than 24 hours to recover from. Right now, while much needed changes starting from compulsory resignations must be enforced on the NFF starting from that waste of space Eguavoen, the Super Eagles team itself now has to be drastically changed, only players like Osimhen, Benjamin Fredrick (who should be made the poster boy of the new generation), Nwabali (still a good GK despite his unbearable antics but needs massive competition now), Maduka, Aina, Felix Agu (need to see more of him at the AFCON), Bassey (he and Benjamin have a perfect partnership), and then for other full-backs: players like Bruno and Sanusi can be kept around till we find better replacements hopefully soonest; which makes me hope we still get a chance to make Michael Kayode consider Nigeria, along with Ahanor.

Players that MUST BE RETIRED OUTRIGHTLY

William Troost Ekong (bye, you've served well but football has left you),
Simon Moses ( same with Ekong, should have been phased out 5-6 years ago),
Semilore Ajayi ( a player who has always blown hot and cold, decent on his best days but very uneventful on his normal days),
Wilfred Ndidi (done and dusted, he's just not it anymore...that moment when he kicked air when a simple tap in was all but needed from that Lookman's pass to make it 2-0 against DRC was the highlight of it all, any other player would have scored that easily and the dynamics of that game would have been different today).

Players who should be phased out

Osayi-Samuel- just a boring and uneventful player, decent sometimes but a largely forgettable player.

Tolu Arokodare- just a very average player who flattered to deceive in Belgium, haven't seen a more unbalanced player who can't hold up play and lacks aerial intelligence and abilities despite his height advantage, Congolese midgets pretty much bullied and out-jumped him all game, thought he was the perfect backup to Osimhen but he just isn't it.

Alhassan Yusuf: This dude is so forgettable that I reckon calling him up is just to fulfill some necessary quota slot for Northerners to be in the team for sake of national belonging, cause his inclusion makes no sense in every footballing logic.


Players who should be on probation depending on how their AFCON performances go:

Alex Iwobi: The less said the better, but this brother was never the second coming of his uncle Jay Jay, it just wasn't to be and it's fine, we might never see another like JJ Okocha ever again. He has one last chance to make a redemption arc for himself this AFCON, play your heart out and win gold for Nigeria, and write youe name in gold Alex.

Chukwueze: A very frustrating player whose international career story can only be summed up in the conjecture of "what ifs?"...maybe he's just better suited as a CAM but we will never know with Chukwueze, AFCON is his last chance.

Ademola Lookman: Something isn't quite right with this brother, granted his stint at Atalanta hasn't quite been favorable lately but he isn't just at his best right now, Ademola on his best days is a world class player, but he needs to get it all together and perhaps use this AFCON to prove he is still THAT GUY...with age no longer on his side in football terms, he has to step up big time and win this AFCON...Nigerians have been patient enough.

Players who still need time to settle

Akor Adams
Uche Christiantus
Chidera

Time to build around:

Benjamin Fredrick (face of the new generation)
Ebenezer Akinsanmiro
Frank Onyeka
Raphael Onyedika
Rafiu Durosimi
Sani Suleiman
Philip Otele
Franklin Uchenna Tebo
Micheal Kayode (if he decides to switch)
Ahanor (if he decides to switch)
David Moses
Odinaka Emmanuel Okoro
Chibuike Nwaiwu
Gibson Yah
Fisayo Dele-Bashiru
Arthur Okonkwo (if he decides for Nigeria)
Ryan Alebiosu
And any other young and exciting Nigerian player out there whether foreign or local born and based.

Osimhen must be made captain and will lead this large core of new generation players from the AFCON where most of them will be integrated as we build towards the next world cup by playing top quality friendly games next year, NFF must schedule those games and make sure our 2026 football calendar is busy, no excuses anymore and we are done with the player bonus rows and drama, all that nonsense should end now.

Lastly Chelle must be retained and supported to win the AFCON...he's still a good coach and the fact that the team even got this far after the rubbish he inherited from Finidi and Peseiro is a testament to that. Depending on the AFCON, he should be given a contract extension and given a freehand to invite his own players and build his team, enough of this disgusting madness of NFF using player agents to force rubbish deadweights on the coach, let all the end going into 2026.

Immediately after our match against Gabon, I watched one YouTuber saying that Lookman doesn't have good on-field rapport with Osimhen.

I dismissed it.

But see that pass Lookman cut back and Chukwueze and Ndidi bungled it? That pass ought to have been made for Osimhen. Osimhen was clear. It would have been an easy tap in. Only God knows what made Lookman decide to give a cut back.


If we had scored that goal we would have picked them apart or at best we could have held on to our lead given that for all their attacking onslaught, our defence held the line.

Was Lookman motivated by malicious thoughts? "As in this guy takes all the glory. Let me pass to another person jare".

If that is what motivated him then it's a big let down because we can all see the results of that kind of petty thinking. The team is greater than all of them. USA dream is gone. Osimhen will still get glory. Nobody can stop his shine.

Mujtahida:
Immediately after our match against Gabon, I watched one YouTuber saying that Lookman doesn't have good on-field rapport with Osimhen.

I dismissed it.

But see that pass Lookman cut back and Chukwueze and Ndidi bungled it? That pass ought to have been made for Osimhen. Osimhen was clear. It would have been an easy tap in. Only God knows what made Lookman decide to give a cut back.


If we had scored that goal we would have picked them apart or at best we could have held on to our lead given that for all their attacking onslaught, our defence held the line.

Was Lookman motivated by malicious thoughts? "As in this guy takes all the glory. Let me pass to another person jare".

If that is what motivated him then it's a big let down because we can all see the results of that kind of petty thinking. The team is greater than all of them. USA dream is gone. Osimhen will still get glory. Nobody can stop his shine.

Those he passed the ball to had no reason not to score.

I won't blame him at all for that pass, infact those guys (any of them) had more room to score than Osimhen.

kennysville:
As giant wey we be abi as what na? The issue I have with your take on sacking the guy is that we are speaking from an entitlement perspective and that is what got us here in the first place. ENTITLEMENT Mentality!!!! We feel that once opponents hear Nigeria, they go begin shiver. At the end of the day, it will always be down to the 11 man personnel that we deploy and how they carry out the coach's tactics.

We need to first deal with the issue on ground which is how we have been unable to get our middle of the park right for over 10 years. Which still comes to entitlement. We dont want to work the work, but we want ready made . Anything that serves our immediate interest. We dont even consider synergy of the team. It is always sentiment laden invitations to the national team. Always the next Shiny Toy.

My take is very simple and this is what corporates do. They do KPIs for each person employed to determine if you are really doing what has been listed in your Job Description and to see if you did any extra. This in turn will determine if you should be retained, placed on the same salary, promoted or fired. When we hand out invitations, what are the said invitees coming to do(Job Description)? When they play, how are they evaluated ( KPI)? How are they deployed? Can they be trusted with bigger roles (Leadership). Do they take charge of situations as they arise?( ownership) . All these are factors that we need to look at when analyzing our National team

Now I dare you to apply all of these to the current team, and you will inevitably see based on the above, who did what? and to what degree. And who needs to be axed.

Not sparing the Organization (Employers, who in this case is NFF) . Does the organization have plans for growth? is there a work friendly environment? Are resources being deployed as and when necessary? Or all they are interested in is annual Dividends and profit sharing.

Think about all these.

My reply to you: It is the job of the Director to choose the best brains for his team. If he can't do that, the organization has the right to fire him.
This isn't about entitlement or whatever you call it. Every team give a target to their managers, and if they don't meet up the target, they are fired. EOD.
The case of Super Eagles; we have been dominating Africa for so long. So many coaches have taken us to 3rd place (including home based & foreigners). We are tired of been 3rd best placed which to me is Average. The best we can take now is finals bcis this has to deal with the kind of talent we possess. If your manager (Eric Chelle) can't figure himself out in this AFCON, HE SHOULD BE FIRED. simple & short.
No sentiment laced.

All of you hoping to win Afcon Una get mind o!

Just manage your expectations to avoid unnecessary heartbreak and suffering! Advise your relatives and friends too as it doesn’t worth it hearing about people dropping dead for unserious players who will turn motivational speakers after disappointing you. Enough said!

Omo people still talking about what and what was and supposed to be


Me I don't move on, thing is if them born both NFF and sport commission well make they listen to association of plastic Fans and sack Chelle,

Bunch of fans watching back of TV

semid4lyfe:
I agree with everything you posted. In addition, I'll say Ndidi is the major culprit in this lack of positional discipline thing.

If you look at the DR Congo match, you'd realize Ndidi was the CDM who was supposed to shield the back four, Iwobi the CAM while Onyeka played slightly ahead of Ndidi as CM/box to box.

But Ndidi didn't keep positional discipline. This was particularly evident from that Lookman square ball that he and chukwueze botched in the DR Congo box in the first half.

Chukwueze don set leg ready to hit the ball but Ndidi quickly jumped in cos he wanted to be the scorer. When it happened, I thought to myself, wetin carry Ndidi reach there na? Clearly, he was aware of his lack of goals in the National team, so he wanted to score badly and was glory hunting.

Even overall, he was poor and was partly responsible for DR Congo's equalizer. Chelle has to be ruthless with the players. Any major eff up,, you chop bench just like he did with Ekong for his errors against Zimbabwe and SA.

I want Ndidi to chop bench and for Onyeka to play as DM at AFCON. Onyeka interpretes the DM role better and even has better positional discipline. Onyeka also possesses higher goal threat than Ndidi. 71 caps for Nigeria since 2015 with 0 goals is quite damning for Ndidi.

On the other hand, Onyeka has scored 2 goals in recent matches against Benin and DR Congo. Even Onyedika who has had very limited game time scored against Benin in the WCQ group away match. Make Ndidi just siddon for bench or miss the team entirely. We can do without him.

Squad regulars/irregulars like Alhassan, Onyedika and Chrisantus can play as CM/Box-to-Box while outsiders like Akinsanmiro and Anthony Dennis can also be brought in to the fold.

Thank you so much for your insightful take.

I think Ndidi's contribution to the NT shouldn't be assessed by goals. It is needless, the positional indiscipline could be engendered by the urge to measure up in goal scoring. Ndidi is a good DM. He should be instructed to maintain discipline in his primary role.

You guys can cry and moan all you want but nothing will change if your President is corrupt, nepotistic, incompetent and lazy.

If you like become the king of ethnic bigotry and tribalism nothing will ever change. A three start general was kidnapped and murdered yesterday.

Hate has a destructive and devastating price!!

ChrisKels:
Yes, we lost because of Osimhen's injury which shows that our team is useless without our main man unlike Congo's because for fvcks sake, Congo didn't even parade their number one striker Yoanne Wissa in this playoff due to injury, yet they battered us like we stole something in the street.


The loss no dey pain me because we obviously stood no chance.

I have always maintained that we can't qualify for the world cup in this fire brigade fashion. It takes laying the proper foundation, starting with investing in and developing our academies, the professional league and lower league, and of course underage football.

We lost the qualification in the group level. All these outcry is very annoying.

The first player to be dropped from the team is Iwobi that guy is too stylish for Africa football.

ChrisKels:
Yes, we lost because of Osimhen's injury which shows that our team is useless without our main man unlike Congo's because for fvcks sake, Congo didn't even parade their number one striker Yoanne Wissa in this playoff due to injury, yet they battered us like we stole something in the street.


The loss no dey pain me because we obviously stood no chance.

As in …d second half shld be replayed to those players …Dey were so heavy,lethargic,slow to even try second balls and I was like ,ah an…wetin Dey go on.abi na Brazil 🇧🇷 we Dey play with

We couldn’t play any shot ,off or on target …I mean none,we lost every second ball,it was dt bad …I am starting to believe chelle ,Abi dis ppu use juju truly cos even this team wout osimhen during unity cup and Russia games was not dis bad …from d blast of whistle going into second half has been a hell of torture to my eyes 👀. It was as if d entire team forgot aw to play football.we were piss poor

I reckon 💯

Simply being an ex player should not be birth right.

orriyomi33:
I reckon 💯

Simply being an ex player should not be birth right.

What more needs to be said. We need a 10 year plan towards development of our football.

123jamessmith:
The first player to be dropped from the team is Iwobi that guy is too stylish for Africa football.

Brother, he is not "stylish" but weak, lazy and uncreative. He is a below average player unsuitable for African football.

Procashtips:
Those he passed the ball to had no reason not to score.

I won't blame him at all for that pass, infact those guys (any of them) had more room to score than Osimhen.

You don't get my point.

I don't know their names but the 5 sets players that held Nff to bonuses and allowances payments should bid themselves farewell from AFCON squad even Eric Chelle won't be able to sneak anyone in.

Arizoner:
abeg sheft. Everybody is angry and you are bringing this one. What is wrong with you

I’m angry as well but the fact of the matter is this: no 2026 WC for Nigeria.

There are three AFCONs before the next WC. Our players should target winning at least 2 of them. This is their time

Arizoner:
thank you my sister and sombody is bringing winning afcon in 25, 27 and 29

These are the same players that went to the AFCOM 23 final. They should look to push on and take the final step.

Egypt went three in a row. Cameroon went back to back. Senegal lost in 2019 before then winning in 2021.